Politics

Obama 'Outraged' Over Rev. Wright 'Spectacle'

Obama On Wright: 'The Person I saw Yesterday Was Not The Person That I Met 20 Years Ago'

(CBS) Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged by the latest assertion by his former pastor that criticism of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church.

The presidential candidate is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to envelop his campaign.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports there can be no doubt about the political impact of Rev. Wright. New voter opinion surveys done after his latest speeches show Obama suddenly nine percentage points behind in Indiana, his once-huge lead in North Carolina shrinking and Obama's once-successful "post-racial" campaign collapsing.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters at a news conference.

"When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I am about and who I am, and anybody who has worked with me, knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign is about, I think will understand that it's completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country," Obama added.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.

"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright," Wright told the Washington media Monday. "It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition."

In addition to mocking the accents of white clergyman and Presidents such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Rev. Wright repeatedly belittled Obama in recent days as a politician saying things just to get elected.

"If Rev. Wright thinks that's political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, I may not know him as well as I thought, either," Obama said.

Obama told reporters Tuesday that Wright's comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.

"The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Obama said of the man who married him. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

Their relationship began to fray last year, when Obama at the last minute canceled his longtime pastor's planned role in the ceremony where Obama announced his intention to run for president. Aides had just shown Obama videos of Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermons, warning that he was politically radioactive.

When past comments Wright made from the pulpit first surfaced in mid-March, including the remark "God damn America," and a claim that, "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus to do away with people of color," Obama made a speech saying he disagreed with Wright's statements But he also said he could "no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

Obama emphasized the need for racial healing in the speech, which he made in Philadelphia March 18.

Obama said Tuesday the remarks he made in Philadelphia were no longer adequate to respond to the situation.

"Upon watching (Wright's comments), what became clear to me was that it was more than just him defending himself. What became clear to me was that he was presenting a worldview that contradicts what I am and who I stand for, and what particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks was somehow political posturing," Obama said.

Obama now says Rev. Wright was never his spiritual advisor, nor spiritual mentor. Still, just last year Obama told CBS 2 that before running for president, he had to consult two important people, his wife and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery in Chicago and the Associated Press in Hickory, N.C., contributed to this report.

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